Hartlepool: Ex-soldier placed spy camera in woman’s laundry basket

A veteran claims he hid a spy camera to spy on a naked woman to recreate the “excitement” of his days as a surveillance officer.

Peter Cartwright, 44, was old, his excuse was “nonsense” as he was sentenced to eight months in prison for voyeurism.

His victim felt “physically ill” after seeing a red light in the laundry basket in her bathroom and screaming, “Why is there a camera here?”

“It was the worst shock of my life,” she said, adding that she now suffers from panic attacks.

Cartwright later told his victim that he was sorry and that he did it because “he’s into her,” claiming he was just putting the camera there that day.

After his arrest, he admitted that he had set up the camera at the woman’s home on a number of previous occasions.

Cartwright, who admitted to voyeurism in November 2021, claimed he wanted to “recreate the excitement of his days as a surveillance officer in the Army.”

But Judge Howard Crowson told him, “That’s nonsense. If you wanted to do exciting surveillance work, you don’t have to do it on a naked woman, do you?’

Teesside Crown Court heard the 22-year-old former soldier – who now makes doors and windows – was deaf in one ear from blasts on official trips.

Cartwright, of Hartlepool, also received a sexual harm prevention order, a permanent restraining order and was ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

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